I just wrote a position paper on this for an American Government class I am taking. My position on this situation would be to use contractors like Blackwater and have them escort the ships through the area. The contractors could have a so called mother ship (I know, it is a pirate term) where they would be stationed and whenever US Flag bearing container ships would enter the area the contractors would be flown out and roped onto the decks via helicopter. The contractors would escort the ship through the hostile waters, act in defense of the ship, and then be lifted off and taken back to their mother ship. Those contractors are always looking for a reason to shoot at something, so this would give them the opportunity.

Plus, alot of host nations will not allow "armed" container ships into their country, so this would work. The crew would not be armed, just the contractors who are passengers in international waters. Once the pirates realize they are being killed everytime they go after a ship waiving the Stars and Stripes, they will back off. Then, maybe other countries will follow suit.

Didn't think about how to pay for it all, but I didn't have to worry about that in my paper.

Why use contractors instead of uniformed military? That just opens the door for all kinds of nonsense we don't need.

Also, we ought to tell any country who doesn't want to deal with armed crew to just take a look at what's going on, and if they don't pull their heads out of their asses, they can feel free to suck a fat one and we'll use armed crews anyway.

Also, this ought to be done in conjunction with the heavily-armed decoy ships that have been mentioned before. We probably have some rule against trying to trick anyone, but that's what would work.